Government targets 15 million engineering jobs in 11th Plan

The government has targeted creation of 15 million engineering jobs in the public and private sectors in the 11th Plan even as nearly 3.32 lakh engineers and diploma holders in the country remained unemployed in 2007.

The private sector is expected to contribute at least 10 million of the new engineering jobs, with infrastructure taking a major chunk of the economic activity, minister of labour and employment Harish Rawat informed the Lok Sabha today

Around 1.93 lakh engineers were unemployed in 2007 while around 1.32 lakh diploma holders were looking for jobs in the same year, the minister informed the House.

These number pf jobless would have gone up with several engineers and diploma holders loosing their jobs during the on-going recession, he added.

The number of unemployed engineers rose from 82,000 in 2003 to 1.12 lakh in 2005, but fell to 48,000 in 2006, he informed the house. The number of jobless diploma holders, on the other had, dropped from 1.31 lakh in 2003 to 1.07 lakh in 2005 and further to 45,000 in 2006.

"Along with the public sector, organised sector jobs would then expand by over 15 million, a growth rate of about nine per cent per annum," Rawat said.

The 11th Plan aims at creating 58 million job opportunities. The focus is also on productive employment at a faster pace than before, and target agriculture growth at 4 per cent per annum in order to raise the incomes of masses of the rural population to bring about a general improvement in their living conditions, the minister said.

The government, he said, has also been implementing various employment generation and poverty alleviation programmes, including Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.